Jack Dorsey announced in a series of tweets today that he is moving $1 billion in his Square equity to create a fund devoted to COVID-19 relief. The Twitter and Square CEO is calling the fund Start Small and posting a tally of dispensations and receivers in a public spreadsheet.
Dorsey stated in his statement that the brand-new effort will shift the focus to other causes eventually, calling health and education for girls and universal standard earnings
The very first Start Small contribution noted is $100,000 to America’s Food Fund– an effort led by Leonardo DiCaprio and Laurene Powell Jobs committed to providing meals to susceptible populations interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Other top backers of America’s Food Fund consist of Oprah Winfrey ($ 1 million) and Apple ($ 5 million), according to the organization’s GoFundMe page.
That’s what we understand so far from a tweet published Tuesday afternoon by the American tech entrepreneur who co-founded and leads not one, however two openly noted companies.
I’m moving $1B of my Square equity (~28%of my wealth) to #startsmall LLC to money international COVID-19 relief. After we disarm this pandemic, the focus will shift to girl’s health and education, and UBI. It will run transparently, all circulations tracked here: https://t.co/hVkUczDQmz
— jack (@jack) April 7, 2020
On why he sourced the equity for Start Small from his payments company Square, vs. Twitter, “I own a lot more Square. And I’ll need to speed the sales over a long time,” Jack said in a subsequent tweet.
There’s still a lot to learn about Dorsey’s new initiative, consisting of how it will be handled, whether it will make financial investments (in addition to contributions) and exactly how those interested pursue funding.
On how to use for funds from Start Small, he directed those interested to Dorsey’s tweet stating “suggestions welcome”– an indication that ventures should pitch directly to the Square CEO’s Twitter manage.
Update: This story was upgraded to include input from Square.
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